UNMC560 - Designing and Implementing Technology-enabled Learning Activities in Higher Education

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

UNMC550 Evaluating Technology-enabled Learning Activities in Higher Education

Incompatible

UNHE505 Technology-Enhanced Learning in Higher Education

Unit rationale, description and aim

As a tertiary educator you are working with your students in a learning environment that blends networks and digital technologies with the physical classroom/lecture theatre/lab in ways that are increasingly flexible and permeable to the workplace and society. When you plan a learning sequence for your students, you are likely to draw on technology for learning activities and resources: this unit will help you consider the design and implementation of these sequences more deliberately. Using scholarly evidence, you will make use of learning design approaches to plan learning sequences that address a teaching challenge that you identify and then develop a prototype of the digital elements that you would need to implement this learning sequence. This unit aims to improve the learning outcomes of all the students you teach and help prepare them for digital workplaces and communities through the pedagogically informed selection and implementation of technologies for learning and teaching. 

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - On successful completion of this microcredential, you should be able to implement a learning sequence that incorporates technology for learning. (GA5, GA10) 

Graduate attributes

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

Topics may include: 

• activity-centred analysis and design 
• accessibility and equity in learning resources 
• blended and online learning  
• scholarship of technology-enhanced learning 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

How can we “put pedagogy first” when integrating new technology-enhanced learning tasks or resources in teaching? What about the changes in teaching that new and improved educational technology tools offer – how can we ensure we don’t miss out on their benefits? A designinquiry approach is one way to reconcile these conflicting needs, because it starts with pedagogical objectives and takes “a pragmatist exploration of the potentials of technology to address those, rather than working from the tool to its possible uses (Mor & Mogilevsky, 2013). 

The ‘design inquiry of learning’ cycle (Mor & Mogilevsky, 2013; Figure 1) combines aspects of design and inquiry: from design, it takes the designer’s goal of improving a situation, of focusing on user experiences, and of using prototypes to test solutions. From inquiry-based learning, it takes a version of the scientific investigative method, demonstrating the process of working through from a question to an outcome via evidence collection, analysis and reflection. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment for this micro-credential is to prepare a design for a learning sequence that includes technology and to collect or build the elements required to implement this sequence, at least as a prototype. (The idea of “prototyping” is to make a version of the sequence elements that is good enough to show how the technology works and that gives you confidence that you could further develop the prototype and teach with it. A prototype would be a good choice for a digital resource as complex as, say, a long video.) 

The reasons for articulating a learning sequence as a learning design are: 

You learn more about the technologies that you have selected by explaining your choices and by using scholarly sources to justify why a technology-enabled task should be beneficial for learning. 

You have the opportunity to study the methods and content that you teach at a close-grained level, and, because you are asked to prepare an outline of the learning and teaching so that another teacher could use your work, you should end up with clear documentation that is also useful for you in your own teaching. 

You can experiment with a new idea outside the live classroom and get feedback from others, allowing you to express your creativity without any risk. 

You are enhancing the learning of others who will look at the work you share, and you will learn from the work that they make available. 

There are two check-in points for the learning design as it is under development, one to review your analysis of your challenge and your next steps, and one to review the draft design before you commit to implementing a specific technology. These formative assessments are designed to support your completion of the summative task, a complete design of a learning sequence and its associated prototype/technology tools and resources. 

Overall this is a pass/fail micro-credential. To pass this micro-credential, you are required to complete all elements of the design relevant to your challenge and develop a prototype as required by the design. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (2020). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age principles and practices of design (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R. (2016). The online teaching survival guide : Simple and practical pedagogical tips (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass  

Bower, M. (2017). Design of technology-enhanced learning: Integrating research and practice. Bingley: Emerald Group. 

Dabbagh, N., Marra, R., & Howland, J. (2019). Meaningful online learning: Integrating strategies, activities, and learning technologies for effective designs. New York, NY: Routledge. 

Goodyear, P., & Carvalho, L. (2016). Activity centred analysis and design in the evolution of learning networks. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Networked Learning, 218–225. 

McKenney, S., Kali, Y., Markauskaite, L., & Voogt, J. (2015). Teacher design knowledge for technology-enhanced learning: An ecological framework for investigating assets and needs. Instructional Science, 43(2), 181–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-014-9337-2 

Veletsianos, G. (2011). Designing opportunities for transformation with emerging technologies. Educational Technology, 51(2).